


Lightbulb Moment (aka Out of the mouth of little children )

by Enigel



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Gen, Muppet Baby Pilots, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-16
Updated: 2011-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-24 02:19:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/257812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigel/pseuds/Enigel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://cabinpres-fic.livejournal.com/728.html?thread=885976#t885976">Martin met Douglas before he started working for MJN Air. Martin was seven and Douglas was twenty-two.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightbulb Moment (aka Out of the mouth of little children )

The sparkie called to fix the lights had brought a boy with him - presumably to pass on the family tradition - and Douglas was watching him out of the corner of his eyes. He was bored, and all his friends were actually attending classes, the bores.

The boy wasn't showing any particular enthusiasm for the art of electricity, and just stood to one side, clutching a toy to his chest.

Douglas peeked at it through the boy's skinny arms. "What's that?" he drawled. Even a conversation with a kid was better than this overwhelming boredom.

The boy jumped, visibly startled, and Douglas smiled in what he hoped was an encouraging manner. This much was certain: if he was going to be a doctor at all, he wasn't going to be a pediatrician.

"Your toy. What is it?" he repeated.

"Oh. It's supposed to be a Lockheed McDonnell 215," the boy spoke quickly, then seemed to hesitate before adding more. "That's what it said on the box, but the tail is all wrong for a McDonnell, and the wing curvature on Lockheeds is much smoother, and the landing train is too big-" he trailed off abruptly, biting his lip and lowering his eyes.

Douglas realised that he'd raised his eyebrows and was looking incredulously at the kid. To be fair, he'd expected "it's a helicopter" or "it's a plane", not a technical spec sheet.

"What's your name?"

"Martin," the boy answered, still looking at the floor.

"I'm Doug, nice to meet you. Well, Martin, I think you should cut the toy makers some slack. I think they figure their job done as soon as they put together two wings and a tail, never mind slapping on some leftover wheels from the truck toy section..."

The boy frowned; clearly, the notion of sarcasm was (hopefully) a thing of the future, but at least he was looking at Douglas now.

"But it's not right!" he insisted. "A real plane couldn't fly like this!"

"Hm, one can only hope real planes don't follow the same fabrication procedure... Say, you seem to know a lot about real planes, Martin."

Martin bit his lip, that already familiar hesitation visible again on his features.

"I want to be an airline captain," he said seriously, clutching the toy plane tighter and glaring at Douglas as if expecting to be mocked.

"Hm, not a bad choice," Douglas mused. "See the world, meet a lot of gorgeous, uninhibited women..."

Martin smiled, revealing two missing teeth. The clouds seemed to disappear from his face in a blink. "You think so?"

"Yes. Yes, I do," Douglas said, more and more convinced of it. "Good luck with that, Martin," he said absently.

Fat chance the working man's son could ever become a pilot, but _him_... Douglas could do anything, if he thought it worth his time.

After that, Martin's dad showed up, having fixed the lights, and they both left, but Douglas wasn't paying attention to them anymore. An idea had caught hold of him.

"Captain Douglas Richardson," he murmured aloud. "Yes."

Screw medical school. Medicine sucked. The glamourous life of a sky god was waiting for him.


End file.
